บท 232: CH_7.14 (232)
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———
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As Takuma jumped from the apartment corridor, he considered his situation. Orange-Mask was waiting for him on the ground, and the leader was only a few seconds away inside the apartment. He was continuously being cornered and desperately needed something to change if he wanted to escape.
There was no use mindlessly running around hoping something would change. Doing so would only tire him out; he had to make the changes himself.
He listed out the problems plaguing him.
The combination of Orange-Mask and the leader had him trapped well, so the solution was to get rid of one of them. Orange-Mask was the obvious choice because Takuma wanted to interrogate the leader in the future. Once he got rid of Orange-Mask, there would be much more space and time to shake the leader off his tail.
But he had to separate Orange-Mask from the leader if he wanted to eliminate him. To do that, he needed to make sure the leader couldn't back up his subordinate.
The solution? Get familiar with his surroundings.
He couldn't miraculously install a map of Yu in his mind instantly, but he could build a map of a single block fairly quickly. Instead of running blindly, restricting himself to a limited area was a better choice. The downside was that Orange-Mask and the leader would also become used to block the more time they spent in it—but there was no other alternative.
Finally, there were the two other pursuers he had to consider. They were chasing his clone, but that could end at any moment—he expected it would happen soon because the clone was weaker than him. It was only a matter of time before the other two masked pursuers joined the hunt, and if that happened, his already bleak chances would plummet to zero.
He had failed to escape death last time and had to be rescued by a passing jonin. Deep in enemy territory, the only thing waiting for him was a kunai in the dark and the high likelihood of torture if he was captured. Moreover, his limited area plan also made them easier to find as they were in the same location.
Time was an important factor. He had to kill Orange-Mask and escape the leader quickly. Otherwise, backup would arrive, sealing his fate.
As Takuma landed on the ground, he threw a smoke ball toward Orange-Mask, who rushed toward Takuma with his sword drawn. He cut the smoke ball down, causing it to burst into a cloud of black smoke. Blinded, Orange-Mask skipped ahead and swung his sword, but it slashed the air. Takuma could've retaliated inside the smokescreen, but he chose to run away.
It was time to play cat-and-mouse.
.
-.-.-
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Inside the apartment unit, Kon ignored the crying woman begging him to spare them, walked through the unit, and left through the front gate.
His plan to lure the culprits behind the police station bombing had been successful. He had to sacrifice a few lives to taint their image, but it was at an acceptable cost. It was fortunate that Yu didn't have a native shinobi population, so it was very easy to locate the two hooded men peering down at the scene from the rooftops.
Though he had to say, the one he was following was quite slippery.
From the corridor, Kon saw Orange-Mask step out of the haze of black smoke, looking for the target. He looked around and saw a glimpse of the target entering an alley, giving chase by running on the apartment building. He saw the target closing toward the exit to the alley. Kon pushed chakra into his feet, shattered the bricks beneath him.
"Got you," Kon whispered as he drew his sword to cut down the target.
But to his surprise, his sword cut through an afterimage. It was the Body Flicker Jutsu. By the time his feet touched the ground, the target was several metres away from him and was heading towards another alley.
"…Really slippery," Kon whispered to himself—but he didn't mind it; he had been in the city for months, and it was getting dull—a hunt like this was just the pep-up he needed.
Kon used the Body Flicker Jutsu himself and flashed forward. He saw the target was once again running up a building and followed him to the rooftop and across to the next one. He drew three kunai and threw them at his target. It was a mistake to be in such an open area. Plus, the target was in mid-air with no means to change direction. Once again, he was met with an unexpected result as the kunai passed through the target's body without resistance.
Then, the target's disappeared into nothing while he was in the air.
The answer evaded Kon for a lengthy moment before he recognized it to be the Clone Jutsu. It was a basic tactic taught in Shinobi Academies worldwide with nearly no use in the real world because illusory clones didn't cast shadows, which was an uncanny tell—but the target's clone was mid-jump, eliminating the shadow problem.
A vein throbbed on Kon's forehead; he wasn't pleased to have been duped by such a simple trick.
———
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Thanks to the Clone Jutsu, Takuma had bought himself a few precious seconds. He looked around, memorising all he could about the place. They were in a residential area with small apartment buildings. There was an alley between each building, which provided excellent access and gave him a lot of options. He was on the street, which made him highly visible, so Takuma quickly went towards the alley nearest him. As he was about to enter, he noticed a shadow in his peripheral vision.
It was Orange-Mask.
Takuma increased his speed and dashed through the alley when he noticed that the alleys between the buildings were there for garbage as there was a garbage collection corner in every alley.
He had an idea. Takuma jumped into the garbage collection corner and knelt down beside the garbage.
He heard the footsteps grow closer until Orange-Mask ran past him. Takuma jumped Orange-Mask and threw an augmented punch towards the man's face. Orange-Mask ducked under the punch and stabbed out with his sword. Takuma dodged with a quick step back before going in with a counter augmented-punch.
Orange-Mask pulled his torso back to get out of the punch's range—and evaded more of his strikes when Takuma tried to follow up with an agile combo. His skills weren't a surprise, given the skills of the assassins he'd fought.
However, he was no longer the same shinobi he was that night.
He punched out the final strike of the combo that Orange-Mask avoided by pulling back his torso and getting his sword into position for his counter, but it didn't matter as Takuma turned the final punch into a second-form augmentation. The chakra flowed out of Takuma's fist and crashed into Orange-Mask's face, shattering the mask and revealing the black balaclavas underneath.
Orange-Mask stumbled back a few steps.
The water tentacles snapped forward and wrapped themselves around Orange-Mask's wrists. Takuma pulled Orange-Mask toward him with the tentacles and went for a stab with a kunai. Orange-Mask resisted the pull, broke free from the tentacle's grasp, and pulled his sword up. Sparks flew as the metal scraped against metal. The kunai missed the Orange-Mask's chest but left a shallow scar on their left shoulder.
Takuma jumped back to avoid a sword slash, but four of his tentacles, wielding kunai, went ahead. Orange-Mask's sword turned into a blur as he dealt with an onslaught of five tentacles. He couldn't dodge the three shuriken Takuma threw with his hands, though. The shuriken struck Orange-Mask right in the chest, but he knew they weren't enough.
Takuma moved in to strike the killing blow: a stab aimed at Orange-Mask's neck. But before he could connect, Takuma sensed a heat and heard a sharp screech. He jumped back, and a second later, a fiery spear impaled the ground between him and Orange-Mask.
He followed the trail to find the leader standing horizontally on a wall.
———
.
Kon followed the sound of clashing metal and looked down from a rooftop to see Orange-Mask and the target fighting each other. The Eight Tentacles was a curious choice of jutsu, but from the looks of it, the jutsu was being well-utilised.
He waited for a few moments longer to watch the exchange conclude. It was clear that Orange-Mask was being pushed back. He silently descended onto the wall and weaved hand seals for the Fire Release: Fire Spear. Kon wanted to wait until he had a clean shot, but when he saw the three shuriken hit Orange-Mask, he threw the spear immediately before the target could move in and land the finishing blow.
Unfortunately, the target jumped back, avoiding the spear.
Their eyes met, and Kon tried to glean their face through the hood to no avail. It cast too much of a shadow. Kon's hand twitched. One command and he could explode the fire spear, but with his subordinate in the blast radius, that wasn't an option.
Orange-Mask raised his sword above his head and swung for the target, who kicked him back before he could swing down. Orange-Mask went through the wall, leaving a hole in the building. The water pipes in the walls snapped and started spraying water everywhere.
Kon was surprised at the display of strength. He even felt the entire building shaking through his feet.
The target threw an explosive tag into the hole. It blew up, further damaging the building. When Kon saw the target turn to run, he weaved fingers into hand seals for another fire spear. By putting distance between him and Orange-Mask, the target had allowed Kon to deal some real damage of his own, and from the looks of it, the target had realised it.
He stopped and formed hand seals of his own. Kon smiled as he put more chakra into the jutsu than before. He pulled his arm back and threw the spear as hard as he could. It screeched as it ripped its target with a smokey trail. At the same moment, the target slammed his hand onto the concrete floor that split apart for the ground to rise and cover him in a dome. When the fire spear struck, the impact fractured the dome. It withstood the explosion but broke down immediately after.
Kon drew his sword and jumped down. He would cut down the target the moment he emerged from the dome. However, as the dome crumbled completely, he realised that the target wasn't inside. By the time he reached the ground. He stared at the empty, half-destroyed dome for a few seconds until the answer struck him.
It could only be the Hiding in the Rock Jutsu.
Kon immediately sprinted in the direction the target was previously running. The jutsu only allowed travel in straight lines—and with buildings everywhere, their underground foundations would block alternative routes, leaving only the alleys and streets as viable paths.
———
.
Takuma appeared above ground next to the alley. He broke into a run and headed towards another alley between the buildings when he felt his clone die. Hedidn't know the clone's location or how far away he had pulled the other two pursuers from him—but he knew that the clock had started.
Takuma entered the alley and, halfway through, looked back to shock himself when he saw the leader dashing into the gallery. He hadn't expected to be caught that quickly. The leader blitzed through hand seals and breathed out an orb of fire. Takuma thought the orb would chase him, but it just floated in front of the leader. The leader threw a shuriken through it, it emerged, completely alight.
Takuma knew he didn't want to be hit by that.
He jumped to the side to evade it, but the shuriken burst into a ball of scorching fire beside him. He moved the water tentacles forward to protect him, which they did—but instantly evaporated.
Now, Takuma had a concrete reason for why he shouldn't get hit by it. He glanced up at two small balconies that opened on the far side-alley. He jumped up the first floor and knelt inside a balcony to get some cover. The leader narrowed his eyes and threw a shuriken above the balcony.
Takuma saw the flaming shuriken fly above him and immediately formed an umbrella with his water tentacles. He was protected, but lost even more water. He thought about it for a moment before standing up and drawing a shuriken. The leader threw another flaming shuriken the moment he became visible, but this time, Takuma met it with his own. They clashed for a split second before both went flying in a small, self-contained explosion.
Takuma smiled, but knew he wasn't safe. He couldn't just keep standing on the balcony deflecting the leader's flaming shuriken. Orange-Mask could arrive at any point, and he would be cornered so he had to be on the move.
He blocked another flaming shuriken with his own before jumping to a second-floor balcony of the opposite building. Knowing he was going to be mid-air and thus, unable to change his direction, Takuma was ready to deflect another flaming shuriken, but as he leaped up and across, he noticed the leader 's fire orb move—it was on the right because Takuma was standing on the right, but now as he was going left, the orb moved along with him.
Takuma realised something. The leader had to throw the shuriken through the orb to convert it into a flaming shuriken, which meant he had to adjust the orb's location to be in the trajectory of the shuriken—however, the orb was relatively slow to move.
He could outrun it.
The moment Takuma landed on the second-floor balcony, he immediately jumped to the opposite third-floor balcony—and as he expected, the orb which had just got in position to strike the second-floor balcony, couldn't move quick enough. When it reached the third-floor balcony, Takuma was already on the roof of the three-storey building.
He would be out of sight just for a moment. He weaved through hand seals. Chakra accumulated in his lungs, and his chest widened as he took a deep breath. The jutsu was primed, ready to be launched. Takuma recalled the leader used a sword and used his shortened tentacles to retrieve five shuriken from his weapon pouch.
Woosh! The moment the leader jumped to appear over the roof, the tentacles simultaneously launched the five shuriken. As predicted, the leader used his sword to deflect them—an easy feat for him—but it still meant his sword was engaged, leaving him no defensive option other than to evade.
However, the leader was in mid-air, and couldn't change his direction.
Water Release: Wild Water Wave
Takuma shortened the spread of the wave and concentrated it into a straight spray to increase the offensive output. And the distance between Takuma and his target was more than double than it was now between him and the leader —they were close enough that it was really going to hurt.
The concentrated spray of water slammed into the leader head-on. He was pushed back, and with no foothold, he dropped down the building. On his way down, he hit his chest on a balcony railing, and then hit his head on the side of the balcony.
'This was it,' thought Takuma.
This was his chance to escape.
.
———
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